In the end, it was LeBron's choice

South Florida should be thankful for four-year run

July 11, 2014|Dave Hyde, Sun Sentinel Columnist

And so it ends exactly as it began, only in reverse, with the celebrating in Ohio this time and so much wailing in South Florida the two necessary words of farewell as LeBron James moves back to Cleveland are lost in the din.

Thank you.

Great disappointment shouldn't eclipse good manners.

Thank you for four golden years with the Heat. Thank you for two championships and four NBA Finals. Thank you for giving South Florida a front-row ticket to the best show in sports and this region's best run since the sepia-toned Dolphins of the 1970s.

There's confusion, disenchantment, certainly questions about how the scales of this decision tipped Cleveland's way and if some penny-saving Heat decisions came back to bite them. But there can't be anger today.

How can anyone be upset with LeBron for leaving South Florida in the exact manner he arrived?

How hypocritical would it be to criticize his free-agent decision to leave Miami for Cleveland four years after he left Cleveland for Miami?

This was his call, his right, evidently his desire to forgo a championship franchise for home in northeastern Ohio. There's sports romance in that narrative, you must admit, the prodigal son returning home, the unfinished business getting finished. Or at least trying.

By any objective basketball call, the Heat was the better pick. It had the championship portfolio, the smarter front office, the better owner and a more experienced roster to win next year (yes, Cleveland could change that soon).

So maybe this was an affair of the heart for LeBron all along, as he wrote in Sports Illustrated explaining his decision. Maybe the Heat had no chance.

It's symbolic he chose Las Vegas to meet a final time with Heat President Pat Riley, because this is LeBron's biggest gamble yet. He's gambling the awful Cleveland franchise he played in for seven years and grew increasingly inept in the four years without him will change instantly upon his return. If any player can cause such change, he can.

But Cleveland has had the No. 1 draft pick in three of the past four years for reasons beyond incalculable good luck. They're a bad franchise. They have some young talent now, sure, but do they have enough smarts to develop it? And build a champion? With a NBA rookie head coach?

Riley, meanwhile, leaves Vegas like Hangover III. The Heat were three games from a title a few weeks ago. Now LeBron is gone to Cleveland. And what's left?

Well, the good news for Heat fans is Chris Bosh and probably Dwyane Wade are staying. Riley sounds like he's rolling up his sleeves, too, when, at 69, he might have thought about combing Malibu Beach.

"We've proven that we can do it, and we'll do it again,'' Riley said in a statement that wished LeBron the best.

There's a chance for Riley to assemble enough pieces on the run to make next season a playoff team. The question is if he's thinking long-term with his decisions or, as in 2009, with an eye toward adding major pieces next year?

Miller would have cost the Heat $17 million. You can understand why Arison opted to release Miller and save all that money. You can also understand why LeBron would have expected Arison to overpay in one of the few instances the owner could.

LeBron delivered titles, sellouts, record TV ratings and overflowing coffers for the franchise. And yet the owner cut his good friend?

This doesn't even get into the fact the Heat could have used him on the floor this year with Dwyane Wade missing 28 games. That frustrated LeBron, too. He said so during the year and again after it.

How much did any of this factor into The Decision 2.0? Who knows? All we know for sure is LeBron seemed to bet Cleveland has a better chance for a title next year than the Heat.

He met privately on Sunday with Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, who four years ago when the fates were reversed released an e-mail in famously comic sans type eviscerating LeBron. The e-mail only went off the team's web site this week.

So all is forgiven between LeBron and Cleveland. Good for him. There will be a debate about loyalty and the Heat now. But let's not overdo that.

Riley felt the homegrown tug enough to try and leave the Heat for the Lakers in 2004. Had dinner with Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Wanted to repair the relationship of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. It didn't work out.

Alonzo Mourning dumped the Heat for New Jersey in 2003. This, after the Heat helped Mourning through his kidney transplant. Mourning now is back in the Heat's front office.

Riley and Mourning are big boys. Riley made an impassioned plea a couple of weeks ago for LeBron to stay, "if you've got the guts and you don't find the first door and run out of it."

LeBron can say he had the guts to go home. Again, it's his life. It's his call. Everyone knew his coming here four years ago was a rental in some form. So now he returns to Cleveland, and South Florida should offer him appreciation amid the disappointment.

Thank you for the Heatles. Thank you for 27 straight wins. Thank you for Game 6 in Boston, for hugging the fan who hit the half court shot, for 61 points in an otherwise meaningless game against Charlotte, for acting with public class from Bump gate through Cramp gate.

It hurts to see the best show in sports move out of town. But it's right to offer LeBron good luck, and Godspeed, as his visit ends just as it began.